Tasting the House Bitter (1.3)

One of the nicer things about a low gravity beer made with English yeast is that the ferment is done in a few days, and the yeast drops like a rock.  If you're kegging, you're enjoying the fruits of your labor in about two weeks.  A month, tops, if you bottle condition.  The house bitter I brewed a 12 days ago has been on tap for nearly a week, and it's quite good, but I think a few tweaks are in order.

No such thing as a failed experiment...'specially when it tastes like this.

I experimented with a more complex grain bill and a higher mash temp, 155 versus my more-usual 150, in this iteration.  In a beer that starts out with a malty, bready base malt, I think all those body-boosting, character-boosting tricks come come together as a bit too much.  In fact, although the beer came out right at 3% abv, it drinks way bigger than I was aiming for.  The pale chocolate and special roast together give a toasted sourdough thing (a flavor I've heard about from special roast, but not experienced until now) that I'm not that fond of.  Again, just too too much bread given the base malt.  

That said, I do like the caramel flavors I'm getting from the english dark and special B combo.  It's an almost candy-like aroma that is kept from being cloying by a pretty firm bitterness, with a nice hop flavor finish.  I didn't end up dry hopping this, so there's no pipe tobacco (which goes great with caramel malts), but there is the barest hint of fuggle aroma.  I know I'm complaining about too much body and keeping the crystal malts, but I absolutely love that burnt toffee note from the dark crystal, and will reduce dextrins elsewhere. 

Speaking of which, I've tended to mash lower in the past—even for a low gravity beer—and I experimented with a higher mash of about 155.  The beer has a lot of body for a 3% alcohol beer, and that would be great if this was February, but it's not really playing so well in June, when I want something more crisp.

For house bitter (1.4), I think I'll drop the roasted malts to streamline the flavor, stick with one caramel, and drop the mash temp a bit to dry this for a bit more crispness. Back to basics.  In the meantime, this batch is still awfully tasty.